Chalkboard Art
(E was 27 months old when she first had fun with Chalkboard Art)
We had:
- Smallish chalkboard (from IKEA).
- Various types of magnets.
- One white piece of chalk.
- Paintbrush.
- Water.
How it worked for us: It was meant as kind of a starter experience, since the chalkboard had actually been out for a while but E had never really used it. My basic thought had been about painting on chalkboard with water but I just put out a variety of items for her and let her decide what to do. E really explored a lot of options, which I thought was wonderful, although all the magnets were total overkill and she almost didn’t bother with them.
There was painting with a dry brush,
drawing with chalk,
some limited magnet sticking,
drawing on magnets with chalk,
tracing her own hand {She’s really into this right now, asks me to do it on a daily basis, then tries to trace her and my hand 🙂 It’s really the cutest thing.} First attempt with chalk here (my hand not pictured ;).
getting the paintbrush wet and actually painting with water for a bit,
applying the principle to the chalk (it broke in half somewhere along the way),
going for the ever-popular spilling water activity {she actually managed to keep it all on the table, I was impressed 😉 },
what to do with all that nice water? That’s right, a hand print in water!
Great fun was had in a variety of ways. We’ll definitely be exploring chalkboard art further in the future!
What I’ve learned:
- Being creative with the actual art supplies was way more interesting than the magnets.
- Open-ended art projects with a variety of materials are great fun.
- There are the things you think your kid might do with the materials supplied, and then she’ll go and do those that you hadn’t thought of 😉
Additional suggestions:
- All kinds of magnet fun – I’m sure E will get into it in the future.
- More chalk in different colors.
- Different kinds of paintbrushes and other tools to paint with water: Sponge, tissue, shaving brush, pipe cleaner, etc.
- Covering the chalkboard (or parts of it) with chalk marks to paint on.
Inspiration: From a post on Mummy Musings and Mayhem.